Remember the hilarity and poor judgment last year of Sunday Night Football’s decision to roll out NBC’s first Green Is Universal week with a candle-lit halftime show? Yea, so do NBC executives. In chatting with one shortly after green week concluded last year, one of them quipped, “Oh that? We got absolutely creamed for that.” What he was lamenting was SNF’s decision to dim the studio lights, fire up some candles, and have Bob Costas and Co. sit in the dark talking about energy conservation — all the while advertising monitors and other bright marketing banners continued on. “It wasn’t what we intended — but it came across as greenwashing. It’s something we’ll avoid in the future,” he said.

Thankfully, after watching halftime this evening, I’m happy to see that NBC seems to have approached the topic of climate change and energy conservation with a little more practicality. This time, hosts Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Peter King simply talked about their personal greening routines. Much more palatable — even if most of the SNF audience tuned out.

Anyways, with SNF kicking things off, NBC will now aire more than 150 plus hours of environmentally themed programming across the company’s television and digital platforms. Look for that peacock to once more go green — though I’m sad to see The Office not making a go of it this time around. Oh well, I guess we’ll have some tips on recycling paper next year. Check out the full programming schedule here.

Categories: Film/TV.

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

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